One by Eve Smith

Happy publication day to Eve Smith for One, out today from Orenda Books. I'm sharing my review for my stop on the blog tour. Big thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy. Eve has delivered another speculative nightmare with One, and you can find my reviews of her previous books, The Waiting Room and Off Target, here on the blog. 

The Blurb

ONE LAW • ONE CHILD • 7 MILLION CRIMES

A catastrophic climate emergency has spawned a one-child policy in the UK, ruthlessly enforced by a totalitarian regime. Compulsory abortion of ‘excess’ pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are now the norm, and families must adhere to strict consumption quotas as the world descends into chaos.

Kai is a 25-year-old ‘baby reaper’, working for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning. If any of her assigned families attempts to exceed their child quota, she ensures they pay the price.

Until, one morning, she discovers that an illegal sibling on her Ministry hit-list is hers. And to protect her parents from severe penalties, she must secretly investigate before anyone else finds out.

Kai’s hunt for her forbidden sister unearths much more than a dark family secret. As she stumbles across a series of heinous crimes perpetrated by the people she trusted most, she makes a devastating discovery that could bring down the government … and tear her family apart.

My Review

One is set in a scary near future. Climate change has caused disasters across the world - floods, fires, etc, and the whole world is in chaos. The UK is controlled by a single government party, the ONE party, and they have implemented a law which limits each family to one child only. The law has been in place for years. Kai's ministry job entails visiting families attempting to break the law to remind them they must book for an abortion or there will be consequences. It's a miserable job, but she fully believes in the ONE party, their policies and The work she's doing. Until one day through the details coming up on her computer she discovers she has an illegal sister. She needs to confront her parents, find her sister and try to protect herself and them. But what she discovers puts everything she's ever believed in doubt...

The scariest thing about One is that, even though this is speculative fiction, it's easy to imagine something like this happening in our near future. We've been destroying the planet for a while now and are already seeing dangerous climate changes, floods and wildfires. And the less said about our government the better, at least in my opinion. But it has certainly tried to control TV and media, and made awful decisions around immigration. The one child policy has been seen abroad in the recent past so it's easy to think it could happen again. All of this means, One feels very real and, as a result, very frightening. 

The world building that Smith has done is wonderful. The all controlling government, the formality within Kai's work (which brought to mind a communist state), the humanlike androids and the landscapes away from the cities that have been destroyed by weather, nature and looters. And the rebels reminded me of the underground groups in films such as Mad Max, Total Recall and Demolition Man, shunned by the mainstream, rejected, outcast. But this group is determined to make people listen. 

The storyline is shocking. The one child policy is just the beginning. We discover the continued abuse of women; decisions about their bodies and health taken out of their hands and so much more. And we sense the confusion, shock and horror that Kai feels when everything she believed in is turned upside down, both through her work and closer to home, and we sense the very real danger she's in. 

There is so much to unpack in this novel but I am fearful of straying into spoiler territory. One is a powerful novel set in a scary and all too easy to imagine near future, which shows us one way things could go if we don't get our collective sh!t together and start looking after our planet, its resources and each other. A tale of  climate disaster, government corruption, bad decisions, awful secrets, fear, family, love, hope and, ultimately, fighting for what's right.  Really enjoyed it.

The Author

Eve Smith writes speculative thrillers, mainly about the things that scare her. Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and described by Waterstones as ‘an exciting new voice in crime fiction’, Eve’s debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set in the aftermath of an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was a Book of the Month in the Guardian, who compared her writing to Michael Crichton’s. It was followed by Off-Target, about a world where genetic engineering of children is routine. Eve’s previous job at an environmental charity took her to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places. She lives in Oxfordshire with her family.